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According to a report from Iraqi intelligence seen by The Cradle, thousands of ISIS fighters emerged from the eastern Syrian deserts in 2024, unscathed from years of counterterrorism raids.
The report details how ISIS has depended on US protection and training to both increase violent attacks in Iraq and Syria and cross the heavily policed border between the two countries.
“[There are] several incidents that confirm the American assistance in securing the crossing route for ISIS members,” an Iraqi intelligence officer told The Cradle under anonymity in January, “mainly, by shelling Iraqi units on the border, especially the Popular Mobilization Units (PMUs), to create gaps that allow ISIS fighters to cross the border”.
That report was a preview of massive violence to come, as ISIS militants have killed around 753 people during 491 known operations in Syria, according to a report published by the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR). The majority occurred in a geographical desert zone known as the Aleppo-Hama-Raqqa Triangle, as well as the deserts of the Raqqah and Deir Ezzor governates.
The attacks have targeted fighters and civilians of nearly all factions operating in Syria outside of the al-Qaeda cutout Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) which now controls the country. They are now spreading over the eastern border into Iraq, an area dominated by the enormous US military post called Al-Tanf.
“According to numerous reports in recent years, ISIS and other extremist groups have received training at the Al-Tanf base and were given logistical support to carry out hit-and-run attacks against Syrian military forces in the desert region,” The Cradle reports.
WaL has previously reported that the Free Syrian Army, a collection of US-funded insurgents that represented a major faction during the violence in Syria before the rise of ISIS, actually appointed a former “emir” of ISIS to lead their resurgence under US leadership. A photo was released by the FSA on Facebook of this emir, named Salem Turki al-Antari, putting his hand over his heart from within the Al-Tanf garrison itself.
Under al-Antari’s leadership, ISIS captured the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Palmyra and proceeded to bulldoze many structures dating back 2,000 years.
A safe haven
In the Iraqi intelligence report, US forces were also implicated in the transport and training of ISIS fighters from Syria into western Iraq’s Wadi Houran, one of the most dangerous sites in the region that has been used as a holdout for insurgents since 2003.
Iraqi parliamentarian Hassan Salem told The Cradle “there are thousands of ISIS members in the valley receiving training in private camps, under American protection,” noting that US forces have “transferred to this area hundreds of ISIS members of different nationalities”.
Again, it’s an alarming accusation to read for an American, but there are other contextual clues beyond allowing a former ISIS leader access to an American base. Almost the entire high command of ISIS during its chief years of terror came from a single American prison camp. All of these prisoners, including the eventual ‘caliph’ Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, were released intentionally.
An officer of a PMU speaking under conditions of anonymity told The Cradle that the US prevents any Iraqi military entities from approaching the Houran Valley, even going so far as to say that “American aircraft targeted units of the PMU that were attacking ISIS in the region”.
The SOHR report details the most extensive attacks in the country since the initial destruction of the ISIS caliphate, but attacks have also been carried out by cells in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq, resulting in a significant overall uptake. The recent attack on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, when an American Afghan war veteran who reportedly converted to Islam ran a truck through a crowded area before opening fire on the crowds, is supposed to have had an ISIS flag attached to his truck.
The data points to a resurgent Islamic State movement, and at the moment it seems doubtful that the new government in Damascus will do anything to try and bring it under control, since its leader, Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, was once both a member and protege of ‘caliph’ al-Baghdadi. WaL
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PICTURED ABOVE: Members of the Iraqi Special Tactical Regiment take part in a search operation near the ISIS-held Wadi Houran in 2018. PC: Al-Anbar police.
